Sports media is either changing drastically or dying outright, depending on who you ask and when the last big layoff was at Sports Illustrated or ESPN. There is less access granted to smaller publications and even the larger corporations have to pay larger fees to set up interviews that can come off as scripted and inauthentic. To be fair, there are only so many minutes in a day to devote to giving quotes, and not every sports fan with a blog deserves to be granted access to a microphone on media day. With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way sports journalists interact with athletes and social media giving those same ballplayers a direct path to the fans, sports coverage is changing, for better or worse. Bitcoin can help both sides bring a better product to the market.
The audience is changing as well. Large conglomerates are having a tough time keeping up without garnering negative press themselves. SB Nation and Fansided have received heavy criticism for their reliance on full-time workers to earn a paycheck of pennies, according to Deadspin reporting. ESPN is under fire for straying away from the cultural phenomenon it had become with Chris Berman and Stuart Scott as leading voices. Fox Sports, CBS, and NBC all have team affiliate sites and contributor networks. The Athletic, already with multiple layoff rounds, launched a subscription model than has been 40% off for years.
The Bitcoin, the Brave Attention Token, Brave Browser, and Publish0x platform could help those bloggers without access to earn more for their content. There are dozens of great writers breaking down game footage and being paid little to nothing for their efforts. Granted, FanSided and SB Nation allows for a certain level of exposure but great work finds a way to be found. Those content creators need a way to be more financially rewarded while still making a name for themselves. BAT and Publish0x provide a perfect platform for well thought out analyses and opinions to be rewarded and expressed without having to chase hot take clicks no one can stand behind with a straight face. The platform allows for honest statements and honest feedback, through the comments section and through the tip pool process.
Instead of writing for free for someone else, in effect censoring yourself while also devaluing your work, why not start building a blog following on Publish0x? Fewer people might see the work at first, but with the right social media marketing, the financial rewards and blog followers would start piling up exponentially. While not the biggest fan of Stephen A. Smith's sports opinions or how he expresses them, the fact he did thousands of basically free hours of work to create an archive of content speaks to his dedication. He was rewarded with a $10 million deal from ESPN, so it worked out.
There are only a couple of big media contracts available. Most of the fan bloggers trying to make headway in the industry could really use some financial rewards for the efforts more immediately than Smith. Smith was playing the old game of making it in the media. In the new world, there may be more profit in trying new avenues of approach, especially as analytics-based content replaces the old access quotes of the Grantland Rice days. As the coverage of sports leans more towards the data-driven models of finding a profitable edge, does it not make sense for those reporting on the games to mirror those actions? If so, using Bitcoin, BAT, and Publish0x to gain money and followers is the most efficient and sensible option presently available.
